© علي Ali Ferzat

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© علي Ali Ferzat
© علي Ali Ferzat

Ali Ferzat: "The attached cartoon represents a child drawing the future in the form of a new house with the sun shining on the ruins of the devastation and destruction caused by oppression in all its forms - including police repression of the media over a period of 50 years in Syria."

European Parliament Sakharov Prize laureates talk about press freedom


The European Parliament has awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to several journalists and advocates of freedom of press, since 1988. We talked to some of those laureates about their experiences, current challenges and the importance of press ahead of the World Press Freedom Day, celebrated this Sunday, May 3rd.


Ali Ferzat, a Syrian cartoonist and Sakharov Prize laureate in 2011 recalls how he tried to avoid media control for years in Syria by using symbols instead of words. “I have deliberately used symbols in my cartoons in order to overcome the barrier of censorship prior to publication” but “was occasionally called in by the intelligence services because of my critical cartoons, which generally found favor with the public”, he says. He had to flee his country for Kuwait, where he lives now in exile, after being badly beaten by a militia group loyal to the Assad regime and left on the streets for dead in 2011.


Razan Zaitouneh a Syrian journalist, who was also awarded the Sakharov Prize in 2011, was kidnapped in a rebel-held area in the suburbs of Damascus in December 2013 and her whereabouts and captors are yet unknown.


Read more: www.europarl.europa.eu/portal/en

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Taken on: March 27, 2015
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